The route is the business
A food and beverage day is a hotel purchase office at nine, four cafes before lunch, a wholesale counter in the afternoon and a restaurant chef who will only talk between three and five. Twenty conversations, mostly standing, mostly interrupted, and every one of them carrying a small commitment.
The shelf tells the truth
Where a product sits on a shelf, in a chiller or on a menu predicts next month orders better than any conversation with a buyer. Recording position at each visit, with a photograph, turns a vague sense that things are slipping into a specific fact that a distributor can be shown.
A tasting without a follow up is a party
Sampling and tastings cost real money and real time. Recording who attended, what they said and what the next step is converts them into a measurable stage. Firms that track tasting to trial order conversion usually discover they were arranging tastings for the wrong outlets entirely.
